Madison Mayor Declared a State of Emergency

March 26, 2020 9:26 am

Did you notice? It was a couple days ago that the Madison Mayor declared a state of emergency and I never heard about it, can’t find the order and it wasn’t in the news.

Click here to read about her first 23 orders under these emergency powers.

WHERE IS THE EMERGENCY ORDER HIDING?

I didn’t find anything on the city website when I searched. There were two pages of results, but nothing was a copy of the order.

There’s nothing on the mayor’s blog

No press release

It wasn’t mentioned during the press conference or in her statement to the press on Monday, the day she signed the order.

The only evidence of the order declaring the state of emergency was one line in an update to the council, which I completely missed!!!

The 3/23 update to the Common Council (in this forwardlookout.com round up) from their chief of staff says the following:

From the Governor and Mayor:

As you may have heard, the governor is executing a Safe at home order tomorrow. We will be awaiting guidance on what is deemed to be essential services. Some of the ones we already know of are public safety services, grocery stores and pharmaceutical stores and doctor’s offices. The Mayor also signed an emergency proclamation which will require some Council action at the 3/31 Council meeting.

LETTER TO COMMON COUNCIL

Memo re proclamation 3.23.2020

To: Madison Common Council From: Mayor Rhodes-Conway March 23, 2020

I am today issuing an Emergency Proclamation. While the State and other governmental bodies have issued emergency declarations prior to this time, I was satisfied that the immediate health crisis was well managed through the public health orders issued by the Director of Public Health for Madison and Dane County.

It has now become clear that the crisis threatens the livelihood of Madison’s residents and businesses in ways beyond the authority of the Director of Public Health. This Proclamation is aimed directly at providing relief to them.

City staff and officials have received numerous requests to modify timelines or deadlines from individuals, non-profits and businesses in the City. This Proclamation is aimed at answering those requests. It allows the temporary modification, suspension or adoption of city policies, resolutions or ordinances to provide relief to the City’s residents, non-profits and businesses.

The types of matters I contemplate being considered are: extensions of time for issuing or paying for permits or licenses, extensions of time in City contracts, waiving late fees, waiving payment of fees to a time certain after the emergency is over, extending time to apply for certain permits or licenses, requiring return of deposits for cancelled events, and waiving competition for City contracts if related to COVID. These are illustrative examples, not a complete listing. We are going to use every tool we can to help residents and impacted businesses in Madison.

Under this Proclamation, the Mayor is empowered to make those modifications. Any changes in legislation adopted by the Common Council will be placed before the Council for consideration at its next regular meeting. The Council will have the authority to affirm, amend, or rescind any actions I take under this declaration that relate to legislative matters.

I do not issue this Proclamation lightly. I will work with the Common Council and the City’s residents, non-profits and businesses to assist Madison in this unprecedented crisis. Working together, we can make a difference.

How is the mayor working with the City’s residents if not through their alders that have been cut out of the process? I emailed the mayor and only got a vacation responder with a link to the public health department. If the committees can’t meet, we can’t work through staff and committees. How does one participate in our local government right now?

And, to see what is happening with the alleged homeless services they are working on – see this article. And this one, detailing the lack of immediate action. They could have opened the Monona Terrace almost two weeks ago, a place where cooling shelters have already been run.

PROCLAMATION

Emergency Proclamation 3.23.2020

PROCLAMATION OF EMERGENCY

March 23, 2020

WHEREAS, the President of the United States has declared a national health emergency and the Governor of Wisconsin has declared a public health emergency in the State of Wisconsin because of the spread of COVID-19; and

WHEREAS, an emergency exists within the City of Madison resulting from evidence of increasing transmission of COVID-19 and scientific evidence regarding the most effective approaches to slow the transmission of COVID-19 is to prevent the circumstances present in mass gatherings that may exacerbate the spread of COVID-19, and

WHEREAS, as a result of Emergency Orders issued by the Governor of Wisconsin and the Public Health Director of Madison and Dane County, numerous businesses have been forced to either close completely or strictly limit their public capacity to ten or less; and

WHEREAS, these Orders and closures have resulted and will continue to result in significant financial impacts on businesses throughout the City; and

WHEREAS, I, as Mayor of Madison, have the authority pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 323.11 and 323.14(4) and Madison General Ordinance Sec. 3.19, to proclaim that a state of emergency exists and to invoke the emergency powers granted by ordinance and state statute,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT PROCLAIMED BY THE MAYOR OF MADISON, DANE COUNTY, WISCONSIN:

1. 1. That a state of emergency is hereby declared for the City of Madison pursuant to Wis. Stats. 323.11 and 323.14 and Madison General Ordinances Section 3.19.
  2. That the state of emergency shall be in effect until April 23, 2020, unless extended by mayoral proclamation or resolution of the Common Council, or until the emergency conditions no longer exist if such period is shorter than that identified in this paragraph.
  3. This proclamation of emergency shall be given prompt and general publicity and shall be filed promptly with the City Clerk.
  4. This proclamation of emergency activates the City of Madison emergency operations plan.
  5. That this proclamation shall take effect immediately from and after its issuance.
  6. That pursuant to the authority granted by the above provisions, I declare the following regulations are now in effect and have the force of law:

I. SUSPENSION AND MODIFICATION OF ORDINANCES AND CITY POLICIES

(a) Under this Declaration, the Mayor may, after consultation with the City Attorney, issue orders to suspend the operation of, amend, create, or adopt city policies, resolutions, or ordinances, and suspend enforcement actions, that are not in conflict with existing state or federal laws, in order to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on city workers, residents of, and businesses and non profits within the City of Madison. This includes the power to extend deadlines, waive penalties, issue permits or licenses, contract or waive contractual terms, or such other actions as are appropriate to protect the health, safety and welfare of the City and its residents.

(b)To the extent any such actions by the Mayor affect a legislative enactment of the Common Council, or create what amounts to a new legislative enactment, the actions shall be presented in a resolution to the Common Council at the next regularly scheduled meeting when the resolution may be considered . By the resolution, the Council will affirm, rescind, or amend any of the orders issued by the Mayor.

The authority granted by this Declaration expires sixty (60) days after the Director of Public Health Madison and Dane County and the Governor of Wisconsin determine to end the emergency actions they have taken or will take to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

That this proclamation will be presented for adoption at the Common Council meeting of March 31, 2020.

ORDERED this 23rd day of March, 2020.

Satya Rhodes-Conway, Mayor
City of Madison

WHAT’S UP WITH THE LACK OF PUBLICITY ABOUT THIS?

Ooops, they forgot to publicize this?

The proclamation says this:

This proclamation of emergency shall be given prompt and general publicity and shall be filed promptly with the City Clerk.

There. was. none. Why?

No press release. No blog. No mention in the press conference the same day it was released. Nothing.

WHAT POWERS DOES THE MAYOR HAVE?

(a) Under this Declaration, the Mayor may, after consultation with the City Attorney, issue orders to suspend the operation of, amend, create, or adopt city policies, resolutions, or ordinances, and suspend enforcement actions, that are not in conflict with existing state or federal laws, in order to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on city workers, residents of, and businesses and non profits within the City of Madison. This includes the power to extend deadlines, waive penalties, issue permits or licenses, contract or waive contractual terms, or such other actions as are appropriate to protect the health, safety and welfare of the City and its residents.

So, the mayor now has all the power, no City Council needed?

And the council just rubber stamps everything, after the fact?

MAYOR’S EXPLANATION TO FINANCE COMMITTEE

This is how alders are dictated to be working at the moment, as clarified by the mayor at the finance committee meeting on Monday:

Mayor says that if alders are hearing specific requests from the community, from any segment of the community with respect to what the city could do in response to this pandemic, she strongly encourages them to funnel those through your chief of staff so he can funnel those up to the EOC for their consideration. Just so you know, the way that this is working is that as those requests come in from the council chief of staff, they are assigned to the appropriate section of the EOC and then if needed a policy is developed for her approval and then they forward it out for implementation. They do look at everything that comes in, and it does get processed through the EOC. She encourages them to be in good communication with Kwasi so he can forward things on to the EOC.

Alders have no input, staff are determining what will become policy with the mayor approving and no legislative input. What is the role of the alder in these times?

ROLE OF THE ALDER

The answer to my question lies in yesterday’s update to the council (in this forwardlookout.com round up):

Council Leadership met with the Mayor this afternoon. The Mayor and Council President discussed what the Mayor will present at CCEC. The Mayor will:

- - - Give an overview of the Covid19 mitigation activities
    - She will discuss the EOC, how information flows and how issues and concerns are being prioritized
    - The Mayor will discuss how the City’s EOC is engaging with other emergency command centers like the county and UW
    - The Mayor will discuss both the staffing challenges and the struggles to procure supplies.

The Mayor informed us that some of the issues being tackled by the EOC are homelessness, staffing challenges, the requests for a sabbatical on evictions, delaying property taxes, business assistance loans and grants etc. The Council President mentioned that there is an interest among alders to know what their role should be during this crisis and that it would be a discussion item at CCEC. Some of the roles discussed included pushing information out to residents such as volunteer opportunities and resources. It was mentioned that the United Way and Food Pantries are seeking volunteers.

So our alders are now public information officers for the mayor and should volunteer with United Way?